Trio of Massachusetts brewing experts, including Wormtown founder, hope to open distillery in Charlemont

Three craft brewing experts from across the state, including the founder of Worcester’s Wormtown Brewery, are teaming up to open a Charlemont-based distillery.

Wormtown founder Ben Roesch, Andrea Stanley of Valley Malt in Hadley and fermentation expert Patricia Aron are going through the licensing process to open Backwoods, a distillery sited for a garage on Potters Road in Charlemont.

The Greenfield Recorder reported that the trio met each other through the brewing industry and hope to barrel age whiskey on the property. The newspaper reported that Backwoods also hopes to distill gin using botanicals grown in the Pioneer Valley.

“There’s very little industry,” Aron told The Recorder. “We want to bring something back to Charlemont.”

The Worcester Business Journal reported that the company will process malted barley as unfermented beer at Wormtown’s brewery, ship it to a contract distillery in Plymouth where it will be fermented, and then age it in barrels at the company’s Charlemont location.

The products will take three to five years from start to finish, Roesch told the Business Journal, adding that gin would be available within a few months.

Backwoods needs local approval from the Charlemont Planning Board, as well as a federal distillery license.